はじめの前に

Python とは

Python は Guido van Rossum（グィド・ヴァン・ロッサム）が作ったプログラミング言語です。作者がモンティ・パイソンのファンだったことから Python と命名されました（Foreword for "Programming Python"）。

The Zen of Python

Python に import this と打ち込むと，Python の考え方を表した19行の格言のようなものが出力されます：

The Zen of Python, by Tim Peters

Beautiful is better than ugly.
Explicit is better than implicit.
Simple is better than complex.
Complex is better than complicated.
Flat is better than nested.
Sparse is better than dense.
Readability counts.
Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules.
Although practicality beats purity.
Errors should never pass silently.
Unless explicitly silenced.
In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess.
There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it.
Although that way may not be obvious at first unless you're Dutch.
Now is better than never.
Although never is often better than *right* now.
If the implementation is hard to explain, it's a bad idea.
If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea.
Namespaces are one honking great idea -- let's do more of those!

これは PEP 20 としても公開されています（PEP = Python Enhancement Proposals）。要は，シンプルに考えよう，ということです。

PEP 8 などについては PEP 8 に移動しました。